


in red, underlined

by blakepotato



Category: Jennifer's Body (2009)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:35:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28186230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blakepotato/pseuds/blakepotato
Summary: Post-movie reunion.
Relationships: Jennifer Check/Anita "Needy" Lesnicki
Comments: 12
Kudos: 83
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	in red, underlined

**Author's Note:**

  * For [littledust](https://archiveofourown.org/users/littledust/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide, littledust!

* * *

It was nearly 2 a.m. when Needy finally made it back to her motel. She should have been exhausted, starving—she'd just had quite a workout with that murder spree (Roman once told her there had to be three for it to be a spree)—but she was feeling surprisingly calm and energized.

It had surprised her, how easy it had been. In the back of her head she knew she should have felt some hesitation at murdering three people, some regret at the loss of three lives, but instead there had only been cold satisfaction. In the end, it hadn’t even been rage that drove her; that red-hot anger had burnt out long ago. Instead, it had been a cold fury, a cleansing fire.

She really _had_ changed.

She guessed your boyfriend getting eaten and then having to kill your demon best friend did that to a person.

Needy felt no fear when the hooded figure appeared before her, blocking her path to the door of her room. She was still high from the blood rush from all the, well, blood, and truth be told wasn’t really paying attention, hadn’t noticed anyone following her. Or maybe she had but hadn't really cared. Jennifer had been right. She felt invincible, she _was_ invincible, and right now she could take on a Mack truck and win. Hell, she could take on _three_ trucks.

Which was exactly what it felt like when the hood lifted to reveal Jennifer’s smiling face.

“Hi, Monistat.” 

_Hi, Vagisil._ In her mind she replied automatically, instinctively. Needy was kind of proud of herself for not actually saying the words aloud. For standing her ground when all every instinct in her body wanted to throw herself at Jennifer, hug her, and never ever let her go again.

“Guess killing you didn’t stick this time either,” she said, instead, calmly taking out her motel key and opening the door. 

“Well, duh," Jennifer said, breezing past Needy and sauntering into the room. "Demon, remember? I’m still kinda mad that you tried, though.”

Needy turned to face her, teeth bared. “You really are a monster, aren’t you?”

Jennifer sat down on the bed—there was really nowhere else for her to sit—and threw her a flirty wink. “Right back at you, babe,” she said.

The room wasn't much--a bed, a lamp, an overhead light. Not even a minibar. But it was reasonably clean and it provided easy access to Low Shoulder's hotel. Part of her felt that rush again, remembering the sleazeball who’d tried to assault her when she’d asked him for directions. He was lucky that all she did was take his wallet. Okay, that and a broken jaw--she figured if he couldn’t talk he couldn’t give her description to the police. By the time he healed, she’d be long gone. Even so, she could feel herself bristling at the way Jennifer looked around the room, at the threadbare carpet and the faded wallpaper. “I’m sure you can do so much better,” she sneered.

“So can you, babe,” Jennifer said, her tone surprisingly earnest. “I’ve been telling you that all our lives." 

Needy had been ready for a cutting response, for a fight. She could have handled that. But Jennifer was quiet, looking at her intently, as if waiting for Needy to make the next move. It was kind of unnerving. "What the fuck do you want, Jen?" she demanded, injecting as much sharpness as she could muster into her tone.

"Ugh," Jennifer said, wrinkling her nose. "Needy, you really stink. Maybe you should shower first."

And there it was. Not even ten seconds before Jennifer felt the need to insult her, and right after she'd said something almost sweet.

Needy bristled again, but then realized she did stink. The blood didn't show but that didn't mean her clothes weren't drenched in sweat (hers) and blood (Low Shoulder's). Even with her new demon-adjacent powers, killing three grown men had taken some effort. And if she could smell it on herself, there was no doubt Jennifer could smell it, too. And blood in the vicinity of a demon was never a good idea.

"Whatever," she snarled, before stomping off to the bathroom and slamming the door. 

_Argh, what the hell, Needy? Why are you doing what she wants?_

The motel had hot water at least, thank heavens. She shed her clothes eagerly, running the water on full power and on the hottest setting. The pleasure chased away most of her irritation, and gave room for a million questions to rush inside her head. What was Jennifer even doing here? How did she find Needy? And why was she acting like she wasn't even mad that Needy had killed her? Well, had _tried_ to kill her, anyway.

It could be a trick, of course. Act normal and wait for an opening; attack when Needy had her defenses down. But, somehow, Needy didn't think so. Her new powers didn't stop at super-human strength and levitation. Being locked in that mental facility for months had also woken in her the ability to sense violent intent, and she just wasn't feeling any threat coming from Jennifer.

Well, any _physical_ threat, anyway. 

She stayed in the shower for a long time, making sure to scrub every bit of blood and dirt from her hair and skin.

The thing was, if she was being honest, Needy wasn't mad at Jennifer anymore either. Even though her therapy sessions had been basically useless, she'd had a lot of time to think in that mental facility. When she'd really thought about it, it had been impossible not to blame herself, too. She’d told Nikolai Jen was a virgin. She should have found the strength to stop them from taking her, or her from getting into that van. She could have demanded to come along. Maybe then she could have protected Jennifer. Or maybe those guys would have killed them both, and the devil gotten a two-for-one deal, but even that was better than failing her best friend so dismally. She hadn’t even called the police, even though she’d been so sure something terrible was about to happen. So, in a way, wasn't everything her fault?

But no, that wasn't right either. It had taken her a long time and a lot of processing but she had finally been able to place where blame rightly belonged in the first place: on that asshole Nikolai whatshisface and his friends. They were the real villains here. They killed her best friend for attention, so people would listen to their shitty songs and give them money. And they hadn't stopped at killing Jennifer either. They'd gone forth, blithely unrepentant, uncaring of all the destruction they had caused in the lives of the people in Devil's Kettle, using their deaths, their lives, their sorrow as kindling for their stupid, totally unearned, fame. 

So she'd killed them. And it had felt so good. She remembered how her body sang with each slash of the dagger, how her blood called for theirs to be spilled. _They'd made a deal with the devil,_ something inside her whispered, _and he's come to collect_. She killed them mercilessly, gladly, and she didn't even have the excuse that she was starving. 

So yeah, Needy's moral ascendancy, _gone_. 

But Jennifer had killed Chip. There was no getting around that. Needy wasn't sure that was something she could ever forgive her for.

Which left them where, exactly?

The water had turned cold. Needy stood under spray for a few minutes more before deciding she couldn't hide in the bathroom any longer. Even then she took her time drying her hair and getting into some clean clothes. 

When she came back to the room, Jennifer was asleep, her hoodie, shoes, and socks in a pile at the foot of the bed.

 _Typical_ , Needy thought. Jennifer didn't stir when Needy sat beside her on the bed, and she took the opportunity to look at her. For a moment Needy could almost imagine that the past two months hadn't happened, that she was still a normal high school student having a sleepover with her best friend.

She didn't know why Jennifer was here, and a part of her didn't really want to know, just wanted to them stay in this moment forever. It was insane, unbelievable, that she was here, when Needy thought she would never see her again. Where had she been all this time? Even at her worst, Jennifer had never been not beautiful, but right now she looked tired, even frail. She looked like she hadn't eaten in a while, and-- _Shit_. Needy didn't want to think about that. Didn't want to think about what Jennifer had been this last month, how she had stayed hidden and alive.

Maybe Jennifer had come here to kill her after all, figuring they go another round and make Needy her next buffet. Maybe—

Jennifer opened her eyes, and Needy knew she had lost her last chance—to escape, to kill Jennifer, to do something, anything. It was too late. 

She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but she certainly wasn't expecting Jennifer to reach for her hand and twine their fingers together. She waited for Jennifer to do something else—attack her, maybe—but she seemed content to just hold Needy’s hand, her thumb occasionally moving across the skin of Needy’s wrist, almost like a caress.

"You know what I was thinking, all that time they were killing me?" Jennifer said, finally, her voice low and warm with sleep. "I was thinking how glad I was they didn't get you, too."

 _She's lying_ , Needy thought. She had to be. _She killed Chip_.

"I missed you," Jennifer murmured next. "Didn't you miss me?"

Needy didn't answer. 

Jennifer had had a lifetime of practice pushing Needy's buttons, of knowing exactly what to say to get Needy to do what she wanted. But Needy had also had a lifetime of giving in to her will, of loving Jennifer and fully believing that, whatever Jennifer's flaws and failings as a friend, she loved Needy back. 

Needy had already lost her twice. Despite everything, Needy didn't want there to be a third time.

Needy tugged her hand free, ignoring the small noise of protest Jennifer made. She walked towards the door. She didn’t even consider going through it. Instead, she flipped off the light switch just beside it, then walked back and climbed onto the bed.

Even in the dark, Jennifer’s smile was beatific.  
  
As they'd done a thousand times over the years, Jennifer opened her arms and Needy settled into them, laying her head on Jennifer's shoulder. Jennifer was so warm, and Needy could hear her heartbeat through her thin shirt, measured and strong. 

She was almost asleep when Jennifer spoke again. 

"Thank you for killing them for me," she said. "That made me really happy."

"I didn't kill them for you," Needy replied, crossly. Well, at least not _only_ for her.

"Liar," Jennifer laughed, then kissed her.

It wasn't like that time in her room, when Needy’s body overruled all rational thought, short-circuiting her brain with heat and intense longing. This time she knew what was happening, what she was doing. It felt right, like kissing Jennifer was what she should have been doing all this time. 

They weren't exactly okay. Tomorrow, they’d have to talk, have to figure out where they go from here. Somehow, they had to find a way to forgive all the pain they'd caused each other. Tomorrow. Right now, what mattered was they were still here. They were together again, and they had time.

"You’re right,” she admitted, between kisses. "I'm glad you're not dead. Not dead-dead, anyway."

Jennifer laughed again. "That's so romantic, babe."

Needy raised her head and glared at Jennifer through the darkness. "Could you maybe stop calling me ‘babe’?”

“But you are, aren’t you?” Jennifer returned. “ _My_ babe?”

Needy closed her eyes and let herself relax, let Jennifer pull her back into her arms.

What else was there to say? She was. She always had been.

Sandbox love is forever.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a lot shorter and a lot tamer than I had planned it to be. I hope you enjoyed it anyway.


End file.
